Telemetry monitoring has become widely used in the care of coronary patients. Most major hospitals now have sophisticated equipment to continuously monitor the condition of a coronary patient by portable individual telemetry units and a centralized receiving and recording system.
A major drawback of telemetry monitoring has been the difficulty in positioning, securing and protecting the telemetry unit carried by the patient. The most common methods of attaching the telemetry unit have been to attach the unit to the patient's garment with a safety pin, wrap the unit directly against the patient's skin with an elastic bandage, place the unit inside the pocket of the garment, or use an expensive, reusable holder or pouch. All these makeshift prior art methods are costly, time-consuming, uncomfortable and inconvenient for the patient.
Further, the prior art methods often fail to secure medical telemetry equipment properly to the body of the patient, and excessive movement of the unit creates harmonics which disturb the calibration of the unit, resulting in inaccurate readings. In addition, the straps which have heretofore been used to secure the telemetry pouch to the patient's body are not yieldable and thus do not adjust with body movements. In other words, the straps traditionally used may be cinched tightly to assure securement of the telemetry pouch to the correct location on the patient's body. This is undesirable as the tight straps constrain the breathing and movement of the patient, which is important especially with patients having breathing or cardiac problems. Because there is no prescribed method or widely used device to secure the unit, many are also dropped and damaged. Prior art methods also do not provide moisture-proof protection for the unit. As a result, moisture can impair the accuracy of the readings and damage the telemetry unit, or both.
Thus, it can be seen that a need exists for a telemetry unit holder which will snugly secure the telemetry unit to the body of a patient, yet also be easily adjustable and removable for the comfort and care of the patient, and yieldable for free body movement of the patient.